Apparently Fiat has taken downsizing very seriously as the best way of making more efficient engines! Their new powertrain for Fiat 500 and 500C is a 900 two-cylinder TwinAir engine with 85 hp and 145 Nm of torque. The last car I remember which had two-cylinder engine was Citroen 2CV! Fiat’s engine though is very advanced.
It has small-sized turbine, 8 injections per cycle, and Start&Stop system. So it has an average fuel consumption of 4.1 l/100 km (4.0 with manual gearbox) and Co2 emissions of 92 g/km with a Dualogic robotised gearbox (95 for the manual).Of course the performance is not brilliant but it’s not bad either. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h takes 11 seconds and the top speed is 173 km/h.
The car has two driving mode, Normal and Eco.
In ECO mode, the emphasis is on “eco-friendly” engine running: torque delivery is cut off to 100 Nm at 1750 rpm to minimise consumption and promote a driving style more suitable for city traffic. The steering wheel is lighter (CITY mode is automatically selected). The driver only needs to press the specific button on the dashboard to activate the ECO function. The lettering ECO will appear on the panel (the letter “E” will appear on the panel if the car has a Dualogic robotised gearbox). Furthermore, the Dualogic shifting strategy also switches to ECO mode to further optimise fuel consumption.
